Check out what is in the news today, February 22

Politics

-- Representatives from Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam will partake in a regional consulting conference, to be held by the Mekong River Commission in Luang Prabang Province, Laos on Wednesday and Thursday, to address the construction of the nation’s hydropower dam Pak Beng and the commission’s research on the sustainable development and management of the Mekong River.

Society

-- On Tuesday, workers at a construction site as part of a project to expand Lao Bao international border in Huong Hoa District in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Tri bumped into a large bomb at a depth of 1.5 meters, which is the third to be unearthed in the area over the past few years.

-- Dozens of staffers at a cosmetic surgery clinic in Le Chan District in the northern city of Hai Phong fled in panic from a fire that broke out on Tuesday afternoon.

-- An official from the north-central province of Nghe An has confirmed 20 middle school and elementary students in a commune in Que Phong District have contracted symptoms of acute nephritis syndrome since late last year, with two students already dead.

-- A sixth-grader on Tuesday fell to his death from the fourth floor of a middle school in Ha Long City in the northern province of Quang Ninh during break time.

-- Nguyen Tan Binh, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, asserted during a Tuesday working session with the city leaders that the patient overloading issue at local hospitals will be solved in three years’ time.

Business

-- The State Audit of Vietnam revealed on Tuesday that 27 build-operate-transfer projects will have their toll collection time shortened collectively by nearly 100 years.

-- Inspectors from the Department of Transport in the central city of Da Nang have fined several drivers of GrabCar, a ride-sharing service provided by Grab, after having called on the Ministry of Transport to delay the app-based service pilot in the city, an official said on Tuesday. 

-- A mere three percent of collective businesses, such as cooperatives, operating nationwide have gained access to bank loans, an official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development revealed on Tuesday.

Education

-- Vietnamese young leaders are encourage to sign up to join the 2017 Young Leaders Program, part of the European Development Days organized by the European Commission, to take place in early June in Brussels, Belgium.

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